


Meeting the parents

by thoughtfullyyoungduck



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie and Richie are married, Gen, M/M, Mentioned Sonia Kaspbrak, Some internalised homophobia, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting, eddie goes to visit the in-laws
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23177464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtfullyyoungduck/pseuds/thoughtfullyyoungduck
Summary: Eddie goes to dinner with Richie’s parents for the first time since they got married
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Maggie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Wentworth Tozier, Maggie Tozier/Richie Tozier, Maggie Tozier/Wentworth Tozier, Richie Tozier & Wentworth Tozier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 148





	Meeting the parents

**Author's Note:**

> My entire country is in lockdown, I’m freaking out and I’m bored, so if anybody wants to start talking to me?! Let me know what you think

Eddie has probably never been this nervous in his life before. His palms are sweating, which he finds absolute disgusting, and he keeps shifting from one leg to the other. The old familiar door is still firmly closed, yet Eddie can’t seem to stop the hysteria from bubbling up his throat.

A hand grips his underarm loosely, the rough palms of the hand irritate Eddie’s skin, yet he leans further into it. Richie is looking down on him with a knowing, teasing smile. When Eddie agreed to dinner with Richie’s parents, he hadn’t expected to feel so nauseous with anxiousness.

It’s stupid he knows, he met Maggie and Wentworth when he was barely two years old. They watched him grow up, they know exactly the type of person he was and the person he had become right before he left Derry.

He used to spend all his free time with Richie in that house. Every birthday he begged for his mom to let him go over to their house, and though Sonia refused and guilt tripped him into spending his day with her, the Toziers always tried their best to make his birthday as enjoyable as possible.

He remembers the last birthday before his mommy and him left for New York, which happened to be his fifteenth. On the day itself Sonia had confided him to their house, claiming that he was sick and he needed to either celebrate at home with her, or not at all.

Looking back on it, it was clear that she just wanted to ruin the losers surprise, as they had a party planned at the quarry. It didn’t matter anyway, Richie resigned himself to climbing through the window at night with soda and chips, and they had a small celebration together.

Two days later, Maggie invited him to their home, also for dinner. Eddie didn’t know what to expect, finding it a weird request, until Richie had excitedly pushed him into the living room, where Maggie and Wentworth had a whole buffet of pizza’s and gifts spread out, singing happy birthday to him as if they were little kids themselves.

Eddie had shyly begun to eat, feeling guilty that they had spend so much money on him, but Maggie had given him a big hug, so tight it felt as if she was breaking his ribs, laughing that it was his birthday, and he deserved to have fun and get everything he wanted for a day.

When she let him go, Eddie, embarrassingly so, started weeping. With Maggie, it felt like he had an actual mom. She was an example of what a real mother should be like, just wanting her child to be safe, but also wanting to encourage them to go out in the world. With the Tozier’s, Eddie felt loved.

Wentworth was the one who taught him how to ride his bike. Eddie’s mom didn’t want him to hurt himself so she refused to even buy him a bike, but then Eddie had gotten so mad that Richie would taunt him with his bike riding skills, that Wentworth had gone ahead and bought him a bike too, practicing with him for weeks until Eddie felt ready to ride by himself. He must have tested Wentworths patients an insane amount, considering Richie didn’t even need a week to try it all by himself, but Wentworth never made Eddie feel bad about it, he always allowed him to take things at his own pace without calling him out for it.

When Sonia found out that Eddie could ride his bike without four wheels, she had gotten absolutely furious, storming over to Richie’s house and berating both Maggie, Wentworth and Richie for endangering such a delicate boy.

It was the first time Eddie had ever seen Maggie angry. She hid it well, she was way to respectable to start screaming or attacking anyone, but Eddie could read her eyes, so much alike Richie’s, spit fire as Sonia kept railing to them. The vein in her neck was throbbing wildly.

When Eddie had finally been able to go out again after being on house arrest for two weeks, for learning how to be a big boy for crying out loud, Maggie had pulled him into the kitchen, promising Eddie that he wasn’t as delicate as his mother pretended he was.

He had been terrified that he wouldn’t be welcome in the Tozier home after the performance his mother had given, but luckily neither Maggie nor Wentworth ever mentioned it again, going on with business as usual. Everyone forget about the incident expect Richie, who took amply opportunities to tease Eddie for the way his mother had behaved. All in good fun of course, Richie could never hurt Eddie intentionally, he just found it funny.

So yeah, Eddie was pretty sure that the Toziers liked him when he was growing up, but things were different now. He wasn’t a helpless kid who needed protection from his mom anymore, and he changed, a lot, even though Richie always insisted that most of him stayed the same.

Not to mention, this was the first time Eddie would go over to their house as their son - in – law. Richie and him had gotten married the day Eddie’s divorce finalized, without any preparation whatsoever. It had been a spur of the moment decision, but one Eddie had yet to feel any regret over.

Except maybe for the fact that Richie was wearing one of his Hawaiian shirts, but if Eddie was being truly honest, it was so Richie he couldn’t help but feel endeared when he looked at the picture taken with utter precision.

Beverly was taking pictures that day, while Mike looked over her shoulder every move, trying to give advice on which angles she should shoot, only to annoy Bev to the point her hand started shaking and the photo’s appeared shaky. Eddie liked those the best. Everytime Eddie recalled the wedding day, a huge smile he couldn’t hide, or even bother to hide, took over his face.

Eddie’s first wedding with Myra had taken months to prepare, and even then most everything went wrong. The bands lead singer they had hired was sick, several of their guests cancelled, and the food was either too cold or burned. The entire day Eddie was sick with indecision, not even sure he was going to say yes until right before the vows.

His second wedding, the one where he actually wanted to get married, he had no anxiety or apprehension whatsoever. The only thing strumming through Eddie’s veins was eagerness to commit to the man who helped him be brave, to the man who he loved even when he hadn’t remembered him.

Because it had been such a spur decision, the only people that had been there for the actual wedding and the reception afterwards, were the losers. Richie hadn’t even thought of inviting his parents, simply for they lived too far away to make it in time. Besides, Richie had argued later, he wasn’t thinking of anything except Eddie anyway.

Maggie and Wentworth didn’t even know the two of them were engaged, although to be fair, they hadn’t been. Eddie wonders if they feel upset that they didn’t get to watch their only child marry someone, but Richie assured him that when he did get in contact with them and told them, they had been nothing short of thrilled. Still, Eddie wasn’t sure that that wasn’t a façade they put up to spare Richie’s feelings.

Though Eddie is highly strung with nerves; snapping at every little annoying thing Richie did, which he no doubt would feel terribly ashamed off after thing inevitably turn out alright, the lime green color of the front door also gives him a feeling of internal peace, because more than his own house, this house felt like coming home.

It’s a warm day, humid in a way that causes Richie’s hair to curl up even more, the efforts of Eddie to rearrange it neatly clearly being futile. Eddie tries again, regardless, but just as he predicted the hair flops back up as soon as he takes his hand away.

Richie laughs, and it fills Eddie’s body with something he can’t describe, maybe doesn’t want to think about too much, but it feels good, it feels enchanting, as if he just can’t get enough of things that remind him of Richie.

The weather does nothing to prevent Eddie from shivering, but that could be attributed to fact that he was back in Derry. He overheard Richie on the phone, trying to convince his parents to come to LA instead of the other way around, but Maggie had stayed firm, claiming that she wanted to cook their favorite dishes, just like she did when they were kids.

Eddie figured that Maggie sometimes got lonely, so she was trying to relive a better time, to which Eddie could relate. Sure, he had to live with his mother when he was a kid, but there had been good times too, and he missed the days when all he had to worry about was how he was going to trick his mother into letting him with his friends.

‘You look like a hobo’, Eddie teases, trying a last time to flatten his hair, before admitting defeat with a huff.

‘Yeah? Well you married a hobo then’, Richie replies easily, their teasing bringing a certain spark into his eyes. Eddie can’t get enough of it.

He rolls his eyes, crossing his arms as he does so, and watches as Richie rings the bell twice. He always rings it twice apparently, it’s a code, so that his parents know that it’s him. That way, if somebody annoying was trying to talk to them, Maggie knew not to open it.

Richie turns back to Eddie instantly, opening his mouth to say something, probably more words of encouragement, and Eddie opens his mount as well, ready to retaliate what he knows are just empty promises, but before he can, the door swings open.

It’s Maggie that opened the door, she’s clutching a wooden spoon in her hand, and a pot in the other. She looks ecstatic. ‘Went’, she calls out before carelessly shoving the pan onto a wooden table near the door, storming up towards Richie.

She looks older than when Eddie last saw her, which is obviously a given, but her energy that she radiates has remained the same, Eddie remarks. She has grey hair now, which is sticking in a bun with peaks of hair hanging loosely to the side, and she is smiling vibrantly.

‘Richie, oh my god look at you. You look so much taller.’ Richie scoffs jokingly, pulling back but not getting very far, because Maggie makes sure to clutch him tight regardless.

‘I do not, besides you saw me like a year ago.’

Maggie levels him with a strict look. ‘Indeed I did, which is way too long Richard.’ 

Eddie can’t help himself, he laughs as softly as he can, placing his hand in front of his mouth trying to muffle it. He remembers a time when every time the name ‘Richard’ was called, Richie knew he was in trouble.

Maggie perks up at the sound of his muffled laughter, wrenching away from Richie to instead pull Eddie into a firm hug.

‘Oh Eddie, you’re still as handsome as you used to be.’

He sees and hears Richie snort at Maggie statement, but he is too consumed with gratitude towards her, he doesn’t bother scolding him.

He missed her, subconsciously even when he left Derry, but he did, so he takes full advantage of the opportunity to hug her back.

When she leans back, she cups his face in her hands. Her hands are soft and are more delicate, especially compared to Richie’s hands. The only people who Eddie never had a problem with touching him are those two. Even when he was married to Myra, he recoiled whenever she tried to be in his proximity, but back then he had just written it off as him not being an affectionate person.

When he got his memory back, he realized that that was not the case. Richie and him touch all the time, to the point were Eddie’s pretty sure the losers are sick and tired of them.

A strong, significant smell carries through the door, and the exact moment Maggie takes notice of it, she frantically turns around and rushes back into the house. ‘My turkey,’ she explains over her shoulder, leaving the door open so Eddie and Richie can join her.

Richie grasps for Eddie’s hand, not caring that it’s sweaty and as Eddie would describe it, disgusting. He never does, never thinks anything about Eddie is disgusting.

‘Told you’, he singsongs as the two pass the threshold and enter the house, where the smell is even more persistent. He’s gloating, because on the way over, all he was talking about to Eddie was how much his parents were going to love him, as they did before, but Eddie didn’t want to believe him.

Eddie rolls his eyes, bumping his shoulder against Richie’s he’s silent warning of stop fucking talking.

They find Richie’s dad in the living room, seated in an old massage chair with his leg propped up on it, and a newspaper in his hands. He’s trying to be casual about it, pretending that even the slightest of his attention is on his paper, but Eddie can tell he’s taking the both of them with a very precise look.

Eddie feels the urge to take his hand out of Richie’s, because it makes him feel a little self-conscious. Years of experience of hiding away his true emotions does that to a person he supposes. If Eddie thinks about it, he’s pretty sure that even if for some reason Richie had confessed to him, and it would have had to be Richie, since there was no way little Eddie would have ever confessed under any circumstances, he still wouldn’t have been comfortable enough to do this with Richie.

It’s maddening, how much power this town and his mother really had on him, and specifically on the way he viewed himself. He hates himself when he thinks about it, but changes were that if Richie would have confided in him about him being gay, Eddie might have tried to stay as far away from him as possible.

Being back in Derry forces those repulsing thoughts and sensations back to the surface, and Eddie doesn’t want to entertain the thought of them. He wants to leave his past behind him, and he wishes it was as simple as carving out the parts he didn’t want to carry with him, but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. He’s seen it first hand when his mother died and he married someone like her regardless.

Just before he takes his hand out of Richie’s, the grip strengths, and Richie kisses the top of his head rapidly. Eddie splutters, all at once locking up and fearfully glancing at where Wentworth was siting, extremely fearful of his reaction.

He doesn’t have one. Not really anyway. He does put away the paper though, no longer pretending to be interested in it.

‘Hey son.’ Went leans forward in the chair, puffs as if takes all of his energy to even do that, and then straightens up.

‘Went.’ Richie nods in acknowledgment, a smirk playing on his lips. He then turns his body sideways so that he’s angled in Eddie’s direction, yet he keeps his face pointed towards his dad. ‘Dad, this is my husband. His name is Eddie. I know you’ve never met him before, but I would have been a wanker if I didn’t marry this fair madden straight away.’ Richie is using his stupid British accent that he has perfected over the years, he’s gotten amazingly good at it, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t use it at any turn to annoy Eddie.

‘Well, I’m chuffed you found yourself someone to marry with, I was beginning to you’d never find someone.’ 

Eddie is stunned into silence as he watches father and son due grin at each other in delight, Went following Richie along with his own version of the British voice. In a way it makes sense that Richie would have gotten the voice from somewhere, yet Eddie never associated it with anyone else, just with Richie.

‘I don’t know how we do it every day.’ It’s Maggie, carrying a tray with an assortment of appetizer, every single one looking healthier than the one before. A small part of him feels smug, knowing that Richie has no choice but to eat some of it, even if he never would eat something as healthy as that on his own, but the biggest part feels guilty, for not helping Maggie cook, and for not coming to visit them sooner. 

He can think of a dozen things to reply to that, some more appropriate then others. His first instinct is to make a joke and deflect. Despite the fact that he loves Richie more than he has ever loved anyone ever, it still cause him a lot of hardship to confess that whenever he wants too. He can sense the horrendous beast that is jealousy rising up again, threatening to tear him apart with confliction because he refuses to pay it any mind, but it forces his attention merciless.

He tries so hard to normalize his relationship, for just because him and Richie are two men, does not mean they are any less in love in comparison to a man and woman.

Fear still suffocates him from time to time, and in those moments it seems like all of his efforts to overcome it are in vain. He begs to whatever god is listening that Richie has enough with Eddie showing him how much he adores him in the confinements of their home, since Eddie can never seem to get over himself and show affection in public.

He’s scared now too, but then he thinks back to Went’s reaction to Richie’s joke, and how normal his responds had been, and Eddie deflects from making a joke.

‘Because we love them,’ he says instead, hearing the way his own voice shakes with reluctance, but he does mean the words, fully and holy, so he repeats it more firmly.

Maggie nods her head and places her arm with care over Eddie’s shoulder while nodding.

‘That we do. That we do.’

\----

All in all, Eddie would say that the night has been a success. His anxiety had been unjustified, what a surprise, and he found himself relaxing more and more as the night prolonged. He allowed the occasional touches of Richie as long as it stayed PG, and even granted him a small peck when Richie said he would only help with the dishes if he did so.

Maggie squalled in delight, thanking Eddie for making her son less of a slob, although the fond look in her eyes gave away that she was never that she never found that too off-putting in the first place.

By the time dessert comes, Eddie has let his guard down without thinking twice about it, but alas, of course something was bound to go wrong. It’s not that bad perse, but the second Maggie mentions Eddie’s mother, the entire table falls into an awkward silence, after Richie hastily shushed his mother.

It’s just an innocent question, about how Sonia was doing, but she has always been a sore subject, so much so that Eddie and Richie barely talk about it themselves. Eddie knows that his mother isn’t a good person, she proved that herself time and time again, but it’s not easy to talk bad about your own mother. She had many flaws, but she also raised Eddie, and shaped him into the person he has become. Richie and him had a massive fight, once over her, where Richie accused Eddie of making excuses for her, and Eddie had gotten so worked up over that statement, that he had rented a hotel room for the night and stayed there.

His mother is a sore subject, and it’s complicated, which sounds like a load of bullshit, but is still the truth. She is dead though, and that for Eddie is reason enough to not dive deeper into that subject, choosing instead to let that be for what it is, focusing himself on the things that he does have control over.

Yet when Maggie asks, it doesn’t make his skin crawl with the need of changing the subject, in fact, he craves to talk about her for a little while, which is something he has never said or thought before. He can’t figure out why he wants to, only that he does.

Richie clears his throat, trying to change the subject, but Went places a hand on his shoulder, drawing his attention. ‘Help me get some more drinks out of the basement?’ It very clearly a statement, but Richie still gazes at Eddie questionly, as if to make sure Eddie would be okay if he left the room. When Eddie gives him an affirmative, Richie follows his father, leaving Eddie and Maggie by themselves in the dining room. He takes the offer that Maggie has provided, and starts talking.

‘She died a few years ago actually.’

Maggie instantly looks horrified, and Eddie sees her trying to scramble for a way to backtrack, to apologize to him even though she did nothing wrong.

He interrupts her before she can try. ‘It’s fine. Really, it’s not. It’s not like you could have known. I don’t talk about her much.’

He can see the sympathy in her eyes, but it’s not condescending in any way or shape. It just is, like the way Richie looked at him when he was recovering in the hospital after being impaled and he would hiss if a movement hurt too much. They want to help, in an actual way, not the way Sonia did.

Maggie reaches across the table to hold Eddie’s hand for a minute. ‘You can talk about her if you want? Did you, Would you have invited her to the wedding if she were here?’

He can sense the under lying question, the one she’s reluctant to ask. Would she have accepted you as gay? The answer is simple, no. She would have hated him, every single pore of him, but she wouldn’t have dropped him. She might have tried to get him to go to a conversion camp, or maybe a psychiatry, or perhaps she would have just twisted the situation to get him to marry a woman, which is what she did with Myra, but the last thing she would have done was accept him.

When he doesn’t answer for a beat, Maggie continues to prod carefully. ‘She was an old school woman Eddie, maybe if she would have been born in a different time it would have been different.’

Except Eddie knows that it wouldn’t have been. He’s mother hurt him on purpose, and made him think he was sick even when he wasn’t, she did her best to scare him so he would listen to her, and that had nothing to do with the time she was born in.

He shrugs at Maggie. ‘It doesn’t matter. You accepted Richie. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and think to myself that I’m an idiot. That I’m sick and I need to get help, because she taught me that.’ Eddie’s eyes begin to sting bitterly, but he refuses to shed another tear for a woman that is no longer alive to even gloat about it. Maggie watching him, sensing that he’s not ready and allowing him to take his time to say what he needs to, like a real mother.

‘But then Richie wakes up, and there’s this moment where the light just falls perfectly and his glasses make a stupid rainbow or something. Or when he annoys me so much by saying something stupid I could kill him, or when I see him caring about others and I get hit with this overwhelming sense of love for him, and then I realize, that it doesn’t matter what she said, because she has no idea what love was truly like.’

‘She thought loving someone entailed keeping that person in your sight 24 hours a day, and locking them up to ‘protect them’. Or convincing someone that they can’t do something because they’re too weak, even when you know for a fact that they’re not but you’re just scared.’

Eddie shakes his head to clear his thoughts, looking up at Maggie while throwing her an embarrassed smile. ‘I never really had a mom that loved me, but now I have Richie and I’m so happy I do. He makes my life better by being in it, and I’m so thankful for that. And it isn’t always that easy, some days I can’t stop thinking about all the things my mother said, but Richie accept those days, and loves me all the same.’

Maggie looks close to tears, still holding one of Eddie’s hands in her own, with a sturdy grip. ‘Well’, she sniffles, ‘You do have a mom that loves you now.’

It’s only nine words, but they cause Eddie to burst out into tears anyway, feeling like a complete and utter idiot. He’s happy though, and the fact that he was doubting coming here seems so absurd now.

‘Thank you’, he whispers, as if the words are supposed to be a secret, but he doesn’t want to break the atmosphere of love and acceptance they have. Then Richie walks back in with Went, and it burst like a bell bubble Richie always wants to pop as if he’s two years old.

‘Oh does Eddie Spaghetti need a tissue?’

‘Seriously shut the fuck up Richie.’


End file.
